


and everything will bring a chain of love

by adozendays



Category: Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Breeding, Closet Sex, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:42:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24837094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adozendays/pseuds/adozendays
Summary: A tale of how there is someone for everyone and also how Herbert West discovers his breeding kink.
Relationships: Herbert West/Reader
Kudos: 70





	and everything will bring a chain of love

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on my tumblr. it was a request fic.

_Herbert pushes you down onto the soft sheets of his bed, your hair a halo around your face. He clambers on top of you, pinning you to the mattress with his body. You’re so warm. When he leans down to kiss you, your arms around his neck and pulling him down, he tastes bubblegum and smells peaches. One of his hands slides between your legs and you’re so warm there too, warm and wet, aching for him._

_Arching your back, you whisper in his ear, begging for him to be inside you. Begging for him to take you, to love you. You want him to fill you. Herbert moans, burrowing his face in your bosom, your breasts fuller because they’re getting ready to nourish the child in your belly and he pushes into you-_

And then Herbert wakes up, jolting up from his desk and scattering his notes onto the floor.

It’s past one in the morning, Peru time. He’s sitting at the makeshift desk in the living room of the accommodations that he shares with you and Dan, out here somewhere outside of Cusco. You’re sleeping just down the hall. Herbert can picture you perfectly, tangled up in the plain taupe sheets, your long hair messily splayed out on your pillowcase, wearing only your Miskatonic t-shirt and a pair of shorts. 

Much to Herbert West’s frustration, there is not a single moment that he can pin down as the exact point in time when things changed. At some point, you went from someone he tolerated only because you lived in the same house and were in the same classes to someone whose presence he wanted in his life. To someone he needed. 

The revelation came to him in a seemingly innocuous moment. Less than an hour into the flight to Peru, you asked him if you can rest your head on his shoulder, just for a little while. Herbert agreed, not even looking up from his notes. You raised the armrest and scooted closer. Your head slotted neatly against him, though some of your hair fell over his shoulder, brushing against his shirt. He could smell your perfume and realized that is why he thinks of you whenever he smells peaches. Not long after that, he realized that he likes feeling you against him and then it hit him that things have changed. At least for him. 

Herbert had spent the rest of the flight trying to figure out when it changed, only to find himself still at a loss nearly twelve hours later, when the plane landed. 

\--

The two of you were in the same year at Miskatonic Medical school but did not formally meet until Herbert had gone to see about the room for rent at 666 Darkmore. You had arrived home from the library as he had been getting ready to leave, Herbert coldly introducing himself before leaving. Later on, he would learn that in addition to both of you having gone to Johns Hopkins for undergrad, you and Dan had been friends since childhood. Your family had essentially adopted him after he lost his parents. Which explained why Megan had been fine with a woman living with her fiancé. 

His initial impression of you is soft. You’re calm, pleasant with a warm, gentle voice and a smile that comes easily. You favor pastels, your hair often braided. And you’re small, barely five feet, your hands almost doll-like. When you told Herbert that you were going into pediatrics, he snorts because of course you were. The flash of anger in your eyes and your request for him to explain his reaction was enough for Herbert to not dismiss you as only a step above a bubble-headed co-ed. He quickly learned that you were not to be under-estimated. That under the softness was a brilliant mind and a spine of steel. 

Though you had still cried over that damn cat. 

But by the time the massacre had happened months later, Herbert considered you an asset, as you sometimes helped with his work, as your hands were nimble, precise. You were someone he could tolerate being around, who could hold an intelligent conversation. Deep down, he considered you a friend. 

Which was why he had ignored that odd feeling when it had seemed like you wouldn’t be joining him and Dan in Peru. As well as the delight that he had felt when you had told them you were coming after all. 

_“It seems like the smart choice to make. It’ll look way better on my resume than doing clerical work at a hospital,” you said, perched on the arm of the sofa Dan and Herbert were sitting on, your shapely legs idly swinging. “And besides, my Spanish is way better than either of yours.”_

_“I’m sure that Dan and I could get by without you,” Herbert said tersely, watching the movement of your legs out of the corner of his eye._

_“Probably. But honestly, between your horrible people skills and utter disregard for your own well-being, I’d be worried until you guys got home.” The tone of your voice had become somewhat somber, Dan’s expression doing the same. It was clear what the two of you were thinking about and Herbert waited for the moment to pass._

\--

The assumptions had begun almost as soon as the three of you had arrived. Late into the first full day of work, the three of you had been setting up the medical tent. As you and Herbert had been working together to organize the medical supplies, Dan had been setting up the beds and some large furniture. After nearly an entire academic year of working together, you and Herbert can translate the rhythm that was developed working in the lab or while studying into other areas. Such as organizing medical supplies. 

The two of you were both kneeling by the supply cabinet, your shoulders and thighs occasionally pressed together. Herbert said something that made you giggle and touch his arm for a moment before you reached for something behind him. One of the other volunteers, a woman whose name Herbert did not remember, approached the two of you. 

“ _¿Es tu novio?_ ” the woman asked, gesturing to Herbert. 

“ _No, no es mi novio. Sólo somos amigos_ ,” you responded, shaking your head. When the woman left, Herbert asked what had been said and you had awkwardly mumbled that the woman had asked if he was your boyfriend and that you had told her no and that you were just friends. Herbert thought of what he had come to realize on the plane and had to force a lump down his throat before he agreed with you that it was a silly assumption for someone to make. He could only pray that things didn’t get any worse.

But of course, his feelings insisted on mutating.   
  
After the first few days, Herbert started seeing you in a different light. You’re still yourself, but you seemed to thrive in the chaos. It was also the first time he had ever seen you work on patients on your own and you’re…exceptional. He doesn’t look for long, because he simply doesn’t have the chance. But when he does, Herbert is always able to recall it vividly. 

\--

The assumptions continue. The three of you work together, live together and yet the assumptions are only about you and Herbert. Never about you and Dan, which Herbert eventually notices. A part of him can’t help but feel a bit smug about it. After all, Dan is the traditionally handsome one, or so he’s heard. People like Dan. People like you. It seems logical that people want people they like to be together. And yet, it is you and Herbert that get asked questions about the nature of your relationship. 

A part of Herbert does wonder if you and Dan would change the nature of your relationship. After all, both of you are single and spending much more time together than you ever have before. Situations like this, working long hours at a high stress job, living in such close quarters, seem to be the right conditions for it. Even if Dan was single due to tragic circumstances. 

One evening, as the two of you clean up the tent. Herbert brings up the topic, in the best version of a roundabout way he can manage. 

“I am curious as to why people always make that assumption about us,” he says, flicking his gaze over to you, even though the two of you are less than a foot apart. “And never about you and Dan.”

“Who knows? People see what they want to see,” you answer, shrugging your shoulders.

“Have you ever considered it? You and Dan?”

The expression on your face is supposed to be one of distaste, but Herbert finds it oddly charming. “There are very few things that repulse me more than the idea of being with Dan in that way. It would be like dating my brother. Honestly, if anyone assumed that about us, it would make me at least want to be sick.” 

Herbert finds himself smirking, almost as if he has won something. Even though he had not been in competition with Dan over…whatever it was. Later, he realizes that you didn’t say anything about finding the assumptions about the two of you, or even the mere idea, repulsive. 

And when Herbert thinks about it, neither does he. 

\--

As time goes by, Herbert finds that his thoughts of you are becoming less platonic. It’s the middle of summer in Peru, so he sees you in less clothes than he did during the academic year in Massachusetts. Herbert is prone to just storming into rooms when he needs to tell people something and this leads to him seeing you completely undressed at one point. You just throw on a robe and ask him what he wants, which is somehow worse than if you had yelled at him to get out. 

One Sunday, the three of you are invited to a lunch at a community hall, along with the Italian journalist Dan has befriended. You manage to get Herbert to come along, telling him that you didn’t want to be the third wheel and you needed him. He can’t resist your pleas and he agrees to come, grumbling the whole time. 

Herbert sticks by your side the entire time, not as comfortable with strangers as you, Dan and the journalist seem to be. A vaguely familiar old woman approaches the two of you, Herbert needing a moment to recognizing her as the woman who stops by and drops off medicinal herbs on a weekly basis. 

“ _¿Seguro que no es tu novio?”_ the old woman asks, her gaze flitting back and forth between the two of you. 

“ _Sí, estoy seguro. Sólo somos amigos_ ,” you answer, words that Herbert knows very well and sometimes has to say himself. 

“ _Qué lástima. Tus bebés serían muy inteligentes y hermosos_ ,” the woman says before walking off. You look mortified for a few moments, burying your face in the side of Herbert’s arm. 

“What did she say?” Herbert is curious because you have never reacted like that before. 

“She said it’s a shame because our babies would be very smart and beautiful,” you mutter against the fabric of his shirt. 

Herbert can’t help but agree with the old woman. The thought lingers in his mind all day. Later that day, a woman allows you to hold her baby and the sight of you with it is…pleasing. You look very natural handling the infant. As you cradle it against you, the smile on your face can only be described at beatific. 

That night, once Herbert is sure everyone is asleep and he makes sure that the door to his room is locked, he lays in bed and allows all of those thoughts to run through his mind. The thoughts of you doing things to him, with him, that friends do not do. The thought of spilling his seed inside of you is what makes Herbert come on his own stomach, the man only letting out a soft gasp as he finishes. 

Herbert had thought that he would indulge himself once and he would be sated. But he finds himself locking his bedroom door more often as the days go on. By the time he starts dreaming of you, waking up at his desk and scattering his notes, Herbert knows that his feelings for you are no longer fully platonic. 

\--

One night, the two of you are in the house, alone. Dan is off with Francesca, the two of them now a little more than friends, though Dan is tight-lipped about exactly what the two of them are doing with each other. Herbert is at his desk, re-writing today’s notes and you’re on the sofa nearby, reading a book. 

And then the ground begins to shake. 

Both of you crowd under the desk, the closest safe place. Herbert finds himself clutching you against him instead of holding onto the legs of the desk, awkwardly doing his best to shield you with his own body. The two of you stay under the desk long after the world is still once more, and an eerie silence has settled over the house. 

After he lets go of you and the two of you crawl out from under the desk. Herbert is ready to retreat to his own room to try and not think about how he had just been holding you so closely. But you step in front of him, just staring up at him for a few moments. Your fingers close around his tie and before Herbert can say a word, your mouth is on his. It takes him a moment to realize that you’re kissing him and another beat before he starts kissing back. 

The two of you stumble over to the couch, frantically kissing and trying to get the other’s clothes off, his glasses being pushed up his face, to his forehead. The back of his legs hit the side of the couch, causing him to stop. It’s only then he notices that you’ve undone nearly every button of his shirt and that he’s somehow managed to rid you of your t-shirt or maybe you did that yourself. 

“Not out here,” Herbert manages to gasp out and grabs your hand to lead you to his room. He manages to remain calm, confident, as the two of you make your way to his bed, though by the time both of you are sitting on the edge and he realizes is imminent, he’s starting to lose some of that confidence. 

But then you kiss him again and it’s like in his dreams, where you taste like bubblegum and smell of peaches and all of his worries start to slowly drain away. “I’ve never-,” he mumbles, not quite able to get it out that he’s a virgin and only knows what to do in theory. 

“I have,” you reply softly, resting your forehead against his. Herbert is relieved, expressing this by kissing you again, this time a little harder, more insistently. Soon, the two of you are under the thin blanket, exploring each other’s bodies with steady, eager hands. You feel better than his dreams even before his fingers begin to explore the juncture between your legs, moaning into your mouth as he feels that you’re warm and wet for him, just like in his dreams. When he’s finally inside of you, he gasps and buries his face in the crook of your neck, unable to move because he’s overwhelmed by the feeling of being inside you. Of you clenching around him, the heat that seems to radiate from your very core, the heady scents and sensations that threaten to consume him.

Herbert somehow manages to hold back until you come, though he doesn’t have a lot of time to indulge in the sight of you writhing in pleasure before he peaks, managing a final, deep thrust before he comes. He slowly pulls out, watching every moment. He takes in the sight of his seed trickling out of your slit, his fingers idly pushing some of it back in, making you gasp sharply, as you’re still sensitive. It’s like that, with gentle movements of his fingers, that he makes you come again. 

\--

Dan finds out a week later, when he comes home early one day and finds you sitting on Herbert’s lap while he’s at his desk, the two of you kissing and Herbert’s hand inside of your shirt. 

“What’s going on?” Dan asks, blinking furiously, but every time he opens his eyes, the sight is the same. His two closest friends are sitting very closely together, lip gloss smeared around both of your mouths. 

“We’re kissing before we go into one of our bedrooms-“ Herbert is cut off by you squeezing his arm. 

“Dan, I know this is a surprise. But I really like Herbert. A lot,” you say. It’s the first time Herbert has ever heard you outright say you like him, though he has figured it out by now. But it still brings a smile to his face. 

“I’m going to need time to process this,” Dan mumbles, stumbling down the hall to his room. “And keep it down, will you?” 

All in all, Dan does take it well once the shock wears off. If the two of you make each other happy and Herbert isn’t waving a gun at people as much, then that’s all he can ask for. 

\--  
  
“What has gotten into you, Herbert?” you ask as he shoves you against the wall of the supply closet, his mouth on your neck, teeth sinking into the soft flesh. Herbert doesn’t answer, his mouth busy marking up your throat as his hands pull your sweater free from your jeans and then move to undo the buttons of your fly. 

Despite being two months into the semester, with the second round of rotations about to finish, people still don’t seem to grasp that Herbert is your partner in more than one way now, you’re _his_. The two of you never sat down and had a frank discussion about the nature of your relationship, but that was because it didn’t feel necessary. It was simply understood that the two of you were only going to be having sex with each other and that there were very fond, non-platonic feelings on both ends. When you had taken his hand as the two of you had walked across campus on the first day back, the last piece had fallen into place and it was official. 

Though despite you outright saying it several times, the other fourth years didn’t seem to believe any of it. They asked you why, how, and again, why, time and time again. Sometimes in front of Herbert, as if he wasn’t relevant to the conversation despite being the main topic. Of course, you stood up for him, for your relationship, your softness falling away at times when someone really pushed your limits. Usually it didn’t get under his skin. Herbert was the one that you allowed into your bed, inside of you. He was the person you had chosen.

But today, one of the first-year interns had gotten rather cozy with you during rotations. Subtly flirtatious at first, but when he had become too obvious and you had told him that you had a boyfriend that was right over there, the man had laughed, not believing that the much shorter, nerdier, bespectacled man was with you. 

Which had led Herbert to drag you down to the radiology department during the lunch break and into the first supply closet that he could find. Radiology was usually deserted this time of day and the point of this exercise wasn’t to get caught. There were other ways of letting people know that you were his without giving them a free show. 

The sight of you moaning, writhing, begging, climaxing, the way your face looks as you do all of those things…that’s only for him. 

This is one of the rare occasions that the two of you use a condom. You’re on the pill and both of you are clean. It is more about not making a mess than it is about being safe. 

It doesn’t stop Herbert from thinking about certain things. As he takes you against the wall, your legs wrapped around his waist and your arms around him, nails digging into his neck, Herbert allows himself to entertain the thought of you falling into that single digit failure rate somehow, or maybe you just stop taking it. The how doesn’t matter, for once. His fantasy is of you carrying his child, the two of you creating an entirely new life. Not something assembled with used parts. But a wholly new creation that is yours and his, that you allowed him to give you. 

Proof that you want him, that you have allowed him inside of you. That you’re his. 

Herbert finishes with a muttered curse and a final bite at the base of your throat, your nails raking up and down his own neck, marking him up as well. When the two of you resume your work for the day, your classmates will be able to get glimpses of the scratches on Herbert’s neck and the bite marks on yours and they will know where those came from. 

\--

During the pediatrics rotation, Herbert finally stumbles a bit. His lack of a bedside manner is something adults can tolerate, but children are a different story. Sometimes he makes them cry or try to hide behind a parent or a blanket. On the second day, a nine-year-old calls Herbert a dickweed and kicks him in the shin. 

On the other hand, you _shine_ , and Herbert finds himself joining you when you go down to the ward in your free time just so he can watch you. You’re a natural with children. On day two, one of the children tries to keep you from leaving and the nurses have to pry the toddler off your leg.

Babies are easier, simply because they don’t react as much or as strongly. The first time he sees you with one of the NICU babies, holding the premature infant with a serene smile on your face, Herbert _knows_ something, even if he can’t even form the words in his own mind, let alone speak them aloud. 

You start going down to the pediatric ward after your workday is done to spend a little more time with the hospital’s youngest patients. Herbert joins you when he finds the time, quietly sitting in a chair, working on what he can. Though he spends more time watching you. 

“Do you have a boyfriend?” a little girl asks one evening as you braid her hair while she colors. Herbert is sitting in a chair nearby, going over the results of the latest week’s research for his ‘personal project’. 

“Yes, I do. Mr. West is my boyfriend. That’s how I know he’s not scary,” you say. Herbert looks up from his notes and the little girl just stares at him for a moment before going back to her coloring. 

“Do you love him?” The question is innocent enough, but Herbert finds himself gripping his pen nearly hard enough to make it break, he can feel the plastic start to give just before you answer. 

“You know what? I do.” You’re smiling, but Herbert feels frozen, unable to respond. 

Later that night, while you’re in the shower, Herbert corners Dan in the kitchen and somehow manages to ask him when he knew that he was in love with Megan. 

Dan just stares at him, lost in his memories, before he replies. “If you’re asking me that, I think you already know the answer, Herbert.”

Which is true. But he can’t bring himself to say it. So, he doesn’t and can only hope that you know how he feels. 

\--

There is a one-day workshop every spring on how to handle pregnant patients offered to the first and second year medical students. Of course, Herbert had been in Switzerland when you and Dan had taken the course and all he knew about it were the inside jokes the two of you would trade. You volunteer to help with it somehow, Herbert missing the exact details due to being caught up in his work.

Herbert goes down to the morgue to see what he can find on the day of the workshop. On his way out, he hears you call out his name and ask for him to wait up. When he turns around, he figures out your involvement in the workshop.

“I don’t know why they had to make it this realistic. A cushion and maybe a small weight in there would have been enough.” You laugh and rest a hand on your belly, which looks to be that of a woman in early in her third trimester. “I feel like I’m about to tip over.”

“If you’d like, I can walk you back to…wherever you need to be.” Herbert knows it’s fake. He just saw you a few hours ago. But it looks so real that he can’t help the thoughts running through his head. He barely resists the urge to drag you into a supply closet or even the on-call room. 

As soon as you get home, Herbert does drag you upstairs, nearly throwing you onto his bed. He hasn’t been in a mood like this for a while, but you’re not going to complain. Herbert doesn’t let you undress yourself, pushing your hands away from the hem of your shirt and pinning them down for a moment before he goes and practically tears it off you, throwing it to the floor. 

Herbert’s lips gently kiss and bite a path from your throat to your hips. One of his hands gently caresses your belly, stopping just above where the curls between your legs begin. He kisses along the path his hand had followed, making you squirm in anticipation. 

“Do you want children?” Herbert asks, which is not what you had expected to come out of his mouth. 

“One day. Not right now, though.” You’ve always wanted to have a family of your own. It just always felt like what you were going to do one day, after you accomplish several other things that you want to do. Propping yourself up on your elbows, you stare at Herbert, who is still crouched between your legs, his fingers idly running over the space between your navel and groin. “Do you?”

“Before you, I likely didn’t. It never crossed my mind.” Herbert hadn’t even thought about being with anyone before he had met you. “But now…” Even when his parents had been alive, he had felt disconnected from them. So, he wasn’t quite sure how to be part of a family. Though, he has heard you describe the household as a family, and he feels connected to you. 

As he slowly buries himself inside of you, one of his hands goes back to your belly. “I think that we would have wonderful children,” he whispers, still thrusting languidly, his other hand brushing some hair from your face. “The thought of your abdomen swelling because our child is developing inside of you…your breasts becoming larger because they’re going to be nourishing our offspring…” Herbert moans and begins to move a little faster, his eyes fluttering closed. He doesn’t need to finish his sentence. You understand. 

“I want that too,” you whisper, which makes Herbert outright whine and now both of his hands are on your hips as he thrusts faster and faster, the noises coming from both of you downright obscene. “God, Herbert, I want your baby!” you cry out when you’re climaxing, your nails practically tearing down your lover’s back. Herbert is able to give one more thrust before he comes, spilling inside of you, his hands gripping your hips so hard that you worry about bruises. Herbert collapses on top you, murmuring against your skin, promises, wants, everything in his head. 

Tilting his head up, you silence him with a gentle kiss on the mouth. “I love you,” you whisper, the first time you’ve outright said it to him. Herbert nods and opens his mouth, but no words come out. But the way he clings to you, how he kisses you when he gives up on trying to speak, that is the only answer you need.   



End file.
